It's about the whole group, not just the team.
That’s the message Blues’ management are sending out to their squad ahead of the coming campaign.
Lee Clark has used a couple of different formations so far in pre-season and tried a handful of players in a couple of roles.
And, come the big kick-off on August 9 at Middlesbrough, the entire senior squad should be ready and prepared to play – at the Riverside and beyond.
“We have got players who can play in two or three different positions,” explained assistant manager Steve Watson.
“We have been successfully able to have a look at people like Jonathan Grounds, who has played left-side centre-half and left-back.
“We have been able to look at Callum Reilly at left-back again, who ended the season well there.
“There’s David Edgar in midfield, who has played there numerous times, if we want a sitting midfielder.
“It is fantastic having Neal Eardley back in the form he is. It is like a new signing. He has been brilliant on the ball.
“Reece Brown on the right wing, we have been able to have a look at him elsewhere, too. The list could go on. We have got numerous options and – touch wood – between now and Middlesbrough, if we get back in action the players with injury niggles (Paul Robinson, Jonathan Spector), we will have a squad of about 24 where every player is on top of their game.
“It is a fantastic place to be because what we are trying to stress to the players is that it isn’t all about who starts at Middlesbrough and that’s it.
“The season is not over from there for you if you don’t start.
“What we know about the Championship is that everybody will be needed and the players that don’t play will probably be more important than the players that do because they’re the ones pushing and they’re the ones that need to mask disappointments in a positive manner and get behind their team-mates.
“And I know we have got the group to do that.
“The first week, for example, they will be invaluable.
“We will see a lot of players involved in the Middlesbrough game, then we have the League Cup followed by the first league home game.
“Everybody will be needed this season and everybody has to be ready to play, which I know they will be.”
Getting the prime transfer targets secured before pre-season training got under way has been priceless for Blues, said Watson.
Navid Nasseri and Denny Johnstone were ‘extras’, on top of Clark’s wishlist.
“It was really important that we got everything done before the first day,’’ said Watson.
“I have never really experienced that at any club I have been at.
“Usually when you bring in nine players it is spread out through the whole of the summer.
“People are coming in at different times, a week earlier, a week later.
“You have got different levels of fitness, they have done different training.
“But everybody is on the same page, everybody has done the same work. They have gelled as a group.
“The lads we already had here were great characters, the lads who came in, they have settled brilliantly.
“You just walk in that dressing room and you have got a really good group who are willing to work for each other.
“And that is brilliant for us.”
